Letters to the Editor published Saturday, November 5, 2011

There are no words that can fully express the heartfelt gratitude, we the family of Mary Ann Chiaratti, feel for the wonderful care our mother received from Coastal Home Health & Hospice.

Until the illness of our mother we did not fully understand what hospice is or how very blessed we are to live in a community with such a great hospice program.

What an amazing group of people they are. Each person involved in our mom’s care was kind, gentle, compassionate, supportive, available, and yes, even fun. Each was willing to educate us on what was happening, what was going to happen, and what our options were. They listened to mom and her desires. They listened to us, too. They seemed to be there just at the right moments when we needed them without being intrusive.

We could not have asked for more compassionate care. They were not only amazing to mom but to each one of us as well. Without their support, supplies, and knowledgeable staff we would not have been able to keep mom at home where she was able to live out her life with her family around her.

Hospice has been a gift we can never repay but we do intend to look for ways we can help educate and hopefully give back for what Hospice has meant to us.

Special thanks also to Redwood Memorial Chapel. They couldn’t have made making mom’s final arrangements any easier. They, too, were kind, helpful, and compassionate.

Marilyn McCalister

Brookings

Bob Nelson deserves a safety award

Editor:

Last Wednesday, Oct. 26, we set out for a week of sightseeing and visiting relatives down the coast, in my little RV – my sister, grandson, myself and my Yorkie.

Just as I entered the “narrows” on highway 199, my grandson yelled “We have a fire.” He had been lying on the sofa listening to his I-Pod when a fire broke out under the sofa at his head and near the converter box.

I knew the road well and knew that there was no way to get off the road until just before Patricks Creek. I drove like a madwoman getting there, and said for all to get out the minute I could stop. Black, acrid smoke was already coming into the cab.

When all cleared the rig, I attempted to flag down cars, screaming “Help, fire!” About 10 cars went by in either direction and none would stop.

A trucker from South Coast Lumber, Bob Nelson, saw that I was in trouble. He came running. Using a blanket and pillow, he was able to extinguish the flames. I don’t know how Bob managed to breath in there, the smoke was so bad. I dare say, another three minutes and I would not have a motorhome! All he would accept from us was a couple of chocolate macadamia candies, saying lunch had been light that day. What a guy!

He then put me in touch with “Harold” at Pirate Energy in Harbor, for repairs. Harold was able to repair it and get me on the road the next day. To both of you and to my friends, the Ingrams of Crescent City, who put us up for the night, a huge thank you!

If there is a safety award at South Coast Lumber, your driver, Bob Nelson, certainly deserves it. Forever grateful,

Janice Reese and family

Central Point

Don’t bow down to an idiotic paradigm

Editor:

Waking up is hard to do.

Americans found out they are the perfect size to fail, regardless of color, and finally, act out. The local Democrats speak of solidarity when their people are the ones in charge of doing the right things and that’s not what’s happening.

The huge cost of wars and security goes on, the banks got federally hard core at the expense of the common folks, and feds are invading free trade, free choice, free movement, and the Demos are silent while the Republicans cry out for more! Both parties are complete failures at this point. Who was it that said, any nation that sacrifices freedom for security, deserves neither; that is so true, nothing else relates

Security for Wall Street and the banks means people are left out. Security for white Americans only leaves out a lot of other races and builds walls and fences where none should be. Capitalism works best when all can join on a level of pure freedom; just ask Walmart.

The idea of capitalism alone means a few winners and lots of losers. Duh! Just ask Morgan Stanley, Stanley Morgan, and J.P. Morgan. Generations have suffered from the paranoid schizophrenic ramblings of organized religions and philosophies based upon stupid innate selfishness.

To finally become consistent with each other in groups as opposed to the individual selection is an important evolutionary step, and to take these altruistic steps is true virtue as opposed to requiring membership in political or religious schemes. Taking in newcomers and forming alliances is fundamentally American and that is what a lasting peace and environmental balance means. The success of the selfish is an idiotic paradigm to bow down to, and if America finally gets off its knees and comes together without the complexities of division, that is cool!

Eat the rich.

G. G. Thompson

Brookings

Let’s put franchise fee to a vote

Editor:

I ask why the city of Brookings needs to impose a franchise fee on Coos Curry Electric Cooperative?

This is a tax which will be paid by Brookings residents. Jake Pieper called it a big revenue source for the city. Is that what citizens of Brookings are to Jake, just “a big revenue source?” You want to confiscate up to $450,000 from the people you represent. This could be $150 per household. I have seen no project on which this revenue would be spent so it would presumably go into the bottomless hole of the general fund.

Let’s have a vote or at least a Curry Pilot poll to see if Brookings residents really want their electricity bills increased by 3.5 percent or 5 percent.

Rober Mitchell

Brookings

Glorification of snagging salmon

Editor:

I am writing this, my very first letter since moving here over 25 years ago, because I am extremely upset about the glorification of snagging salmon in the river.

I think Mr. Hatch doesn’t necessarily have all the information he needs. He mentions that snagging fish and taking a life both have consequences. Removing salmon from the river is taking a life and that should be taken seriously.

Furthermore, hundreds of people work together every year to try to keep track of fish coming in, going out, and maintain hatcheries just to keep a dwindling species alive. Apparently you used to be able to cross the river on the backs of these fish, there were so many. I have watched the water for hours without a bite or even seeing a fish. Overfishing destroys species, proven fact!

Now the nasty part, not for the squeamish. Now what happens if you don’t get your salmon to shore. Well if you hooked him in the eye then he is blind. If you only happened to get one hook in his belly then try to set it then you effectively split it open for its eggs, sperm or guts to be released. Not a good spawning practice. There are also smolt trying to grow that are easily ripped in two by treble hooks.

I’m very glad people haven’t started taking this approach to game hunting. Just walk out in the woods, take a shot in all directions, then take a peek around to see if anything fell. Don’t see anything, well you probably missed; better try again. In game hunting you need to know what you’re shooting at. In game fishing you also need to know. There’s plenty of anchovies if you really need to hook a fish in the middle.

In my opinion, Mr Hatch, two articles in a row condoning and almost encouraging the continued destruction of our fishery, a source of food for hundreds of years, and a very important source of commerce for our community is reckless and irresponsible.

Mike Chapman

Brookings

Learn more about saving the Chetco

Editor:

How much can one person affect the Chetco River? It all depends on what they do.

Any type of mechanized mining has a much greater impact than most recreational activities, and if allowed to continue will combine to have a large impact on the river and the other recreational users.

There may be several ways to better define how to mine without such an impact, but experience has shown that a mineral withdrawal is a good starting point to get there. See www.saveourchetco.blogspot.com/ to learn more and see how you can help.

Rob Harvey

Brookings

Buy your vote? Yes we will

Editor:

Buy your vote? Yes we will, by:

•Increasing Social Security payments to buy senior citizens’ votes (even though for three years they said there is no inflation at all);

•Forgiving student loans (if you live long enough);

•Refinancing mortgages if under water (but you still owe full amount owed);

•Sympathizing with the 99 percenters (while kissing up to big business for reelection donations);

•Continuing deportation only for very serious criminals to get alien votes (while leaving the borders open for more);

•Continuing to bus voting-age people between states that have no identity requirements for voters (hey, it always works, ask ex-president Clinton – the anti-racist president);

•Joining with the so-called Wall Street sitters in irrational aggression versus facts (who passed all of these killer laws, it wasn’t the banks or business people).

And, who pays for it? You and I of course.

Doug Bewall

Gold Beach

As an American, where do you stand?

Editor:

Having read the Public Forum in the Oct. 29 Pilot by the Curry County Democratic Central Committee Chairman endorsing the activities of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, I wasn’t a bit surprised.

This Democratic Party/Big Union driven Occupy Wall Street (OWS) group that is also endorsed by the American Nazi and American Communist Party as well as anarchists worldwide are on a mission to financially destroy the United States and its Constitutional form of government.

If one were to get out their dictionary and read the definition of Communism, you would find that it is the type of government that The Democratic Central Committee and (OWS) people support. The framers of our Constitution gave us a Republic, yet our government as it has moved more and more toward Socialism through its Socialist public schools have for years taught that we are a Democracy. This began when the Feds took education away from the states. A Republic is governed by rule of law whereas a Democracy is governed by the majority. Once the majority finds they can vote themselves money and benefits earned by others that they themselves haven’t had to work for, they will do that out of greed. That’s where this country is now and that’s what The Democratic Central Committee and (OWS) support.

One has only to watch the news and listen to the crimes, drug use, rioting, filthy living conditions, and destruction being perpetrated by the Occupy Wall Street protesters in nearly every city they demonstrate in and compare them to the orderly, respectful, patriotic gatherings of the TEA Party people and you have to wonder on which side you as an American stand?